Monday, June 19, 2017

Looks like you are in luck momma!  You will still be getting pictures for the next 6 weeks because Elder Barcinas and I are still together.  Elder Barcinas is the man!  He is saving me getting in trouble every week for not sending pictures home haha.  We are really excited to have another 6 weeks to work together.  We have been working really hard and we have been praying heaps to be able to find someone who is prepared for baptism.  I'm sure the Lord is going to help us and answer our prayers over these next few weeks.  I know baptisms are not everything but we feel it would be a great way to end our transfer.  John and Lina are our closest investigators to being baptized!  Guess what?!! They both came to church on Sunday!!  It was Johns second time being at church and he really loved it.  We had such an awesome lesson with them this week.  We had planned to teach keeping the Sabbath day holy, but when we went in it didn't really feel right.  We ended up talking about temples instead and talked about eternal families.  We got talking and John opened up to us and shared that every time he wanted to come to church or read the scriptures something would distract him and make him feel sad and depressed.  We talked about how the adversary knows how much John and Lina can be blessed by coming to church and by being baptized so he is doing everything he can to stop them and distract them.  We talked about how much the gospel and having an eternal family would bless their lives.  We were able to give John a blessing and he was in tears. They are such an awesome family and I'm sure they will get baptized this transfer.

Guess who came to New Zealand and didn't see us…President Eyring and Elder Anderson.  We were all gutted that we didn't get to meet with them.  President Eyring came to dedicate The Mathew Cowley Church History Building in Templeview where the temple is located.  It's also where the church college was here in New Zealand, but they had to close it down.  We weren't able to go to the dedication, but we did get to go to the stake center and watch the broadcast live.  We also got to go on Friday night and watch the broadcast of the cultural night.  It was a really cool weekend.  Both Elder Anderson and Elder Eyring gave mean as talks!!!

It's really sad that it has taken me this long, but I feel that this last few weeks I have finally found out how to be super effective.  My whole mission I have loved knocking on doors.  I love going out and doing the work.  I have never been a fan of trying to work with the members because they take too long to get moving…no offense haha.  This past week though we have been using the Bishop’s action list and it has been helping heaps!!!  Papi make sure your missionaries have that list.  Last night we contacted the list of new move ins and guess what.  We pretty much found our next baptism.  There is heaps of low lying fruit that come from contacting the ward list and Bishop action list!  Man we have been finding lots of potential part member families to work with.  It is so awesome!  The best part is that if you go to contact someone from the list you can still knock on doors if they are not home.  Usually what I have done throughout my mission is knock on heaps of doors and build up heaps of potential investigators and then I would just try and visit heaps of potentials throughout the day and if the potentials weren't home we would just knock on doors around their home.  It has been a lot more effective though to go through the list first.  Sorry this is probably a really boring letter for you all, and it probably doesn't make too much sense.  Elder Barcinas and I are going really hard for this next 6 weeks though and we know there is going to be some great miracles.  I love being a missionary!

Man there are heaps of stories that I haven't been able to tell.  I don't have enough time.  I had a mean miracle with prayer the other day, and we also taught a mean as part member family from Kiribati.  There are heaps of Kiribati people in New Zealand and especially in Hamilton.  We found them knocking on doors and the mom Temwane is a convert to the church and has the coolest conversion story ever.  Her husband is Methodist and his name in Ritati and he is such a humble man.  We had our first lesson this week and we taught the restoration and he loved it!!!  He is such a humble man and he loves Joseph Smith’s experience.  The spirit was so strong in the lesson!  Hopefully they will come to church this Sunday.  Man I could go on for ages, this past week was mean as!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!  Happy Father’s day Papi, you are the man!!!!!!!!!!  I seriously have the best Papi in the whole world.  Thanks for your great example.  I know I wouldn't be on a mission without you.  I have always looked up to you and I'm thankful for the lessons that I have learned from you.

  

Love,

Elder Brunson